III-V semiconductors have desirable properties of higher carrier mobility than silicon. They have been successfully employed in metal semiconductor (Schottky) devices, but have not been commercially employed in the more widely useful metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) devices. A reason for this is that the native oxides of the III-V materials do not form thermodynamically stable layers thereon in the way that silicon dioxide layers can be formed on silicon to form MIS devices. Silicon oxynitride and Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 have been used as an insulating layer on III-V materials with limited success.
The passivation of III-V semiconductors has been a problem for the same reasons.
Thus it is highly desirable to find a material, and a means of producing it, which readily forms an insulating and passivating layer on III-V materials and thus provide the basis for the formation of MIS and Schottky devices, particularly MISFETS and MESFETS.
Similarly, it is desirable to reduce the surface component of currents in III-V opto-electronic devices by passivating the surface thereof.
It is also desirable to decrease the carrier recombination velocity at the surface of III-V opto-electronic devices.